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We just started supporting Solaris 10 in our VMware cluster so I had to update my zone type script to detect if the OS is running there. I’m not sure how I feel about depending on the output of ptrdiag since the interface is labeled “unstable”, but it works for now, and I really don’t see Sun changing the first line of output where the system configuration is listed. Anyhow, when issued with the -v or –vmware flag, the script returns 0 if it’s running on the cluster and 1 if it is not.

Usage:

# zonetype.sh -g or –global
Return 0: The machine is a global zone with 1 or more local zones
Return 1: The machine is not a global zone

# zonetype.sh -l or –local
Return 0: The machine is a local zone
Return 1: The machine is not a not a local zone

# zonetype.sh -v or –vmware
Return 0: The machine is running on a VMware hypervisor
Return 1: The machine is not running in VMware

#! /bin/bash
#
# When issued with the -g or --global flag, this script will return:
# 0 if the machine is a global zone and has one or more local zones.
# Otherwise, it will return 1
#
# When issued with the -l or --local flag, this script will return:
# 0 if if is a local zone and 1 if it is not
#
# When issued with the -v or --vmware flag, this script will return:
# 0 if it is a vmware host and 1 if not.
#
list=( `/usr/sbin/zoneadm list -civ | awk '{ print $1 }'`)
case "$1" in
-g|--global)
# If the third element in our array is null, set it to 0
if [ "${list[2]}" == "" ]; then
list[2]=0
fi
# This is a global zone only if it has one or more local zones.
if [ ${list[1]} -eq 0 ] && [ ${list[2]} -ge 1 ]; then
# 1 is returned if we have a global and local zone,
# otherwise, we return 0
exit 0
else
exit 1
fi
;;
-l|--local)
# If the second element in our array is = or > 1, it is a local zone.
if [ ${list[1]} -ge 1 ]; then
# Return 1 if this is a local zone, otherwise return 0.
exit 0
else
exit 1
fi
;;
-v|--vmware)
# Don't run our check on local zones... Prtdiag can't run there
if [ ${list[1]} != 0 ]; then
exit 1
else
vmhost=( `/usr/sbin/prtdiag | grep System | awk '{ print $5 }'`)
if [ $vmhost == VMware ]; then
#If the host is running on the vmware cluster return 0,
# otherwise, return 1
exit 0
else
exit 1
fi
fi
;;
*)
echo "Usage: /local/adm/zonetype.sh {-l | --local | -g | --global | -v | --vmware}"
exit 1
esac

Every time I have to spec a solution using Solaris, I always have to answer a bunch of questions in meetings about why Sun is so costly compared to Dell servers. Usually the reason for the higher price is not the servers (especially with X86 sun), but rather the storage. Since Sun does not offer a system with a RAID card, you always have to purchase a high-end disk enclosure that is capable of performing the RAID functions unless you want the performance degradation that comes with software RAID.

The good news is that there is finally a really nice PCI RAID card that works with Solaris! The bad news is that it only works with X86 Solaris, and Sun only goes so far as to say that it is”reported to work“.

Anyhow, no matter. Here is the deal:

According to Sun Big Admin, the Mylex Accelaraid 150 is reported to work with Solaris 9 04/04 to Solaris 10 03/05 (read Solaris 9 and 10 X86). The firmware and bios on the card needs to be: BIOS Version 4.10-50; Firmware 4.08-37.

Pity that there still does not seem to be a RAID controller that works with SPARC hardware. If someone would come up with that, it would make my life as a Solaris administrator a whole lot easier.